Moody’s bid to own majority stake in Icra

Mumbai, Feb. 21: Moody’s today announced an open offer to acquire up to 26.5 per cent in Icra Ltd for Rs 2,000 per share to become a majority shareholder in the domestic credit rating agency.

Moody’s is the largest shareholder in Icra, owning 28.51 per cent through Moody’s Investment Company India Pvt Ltd. If the open offer is successful, Moody’s shareholding will rise to 55 per cent.

The open offer price marks a premium of over 25 per cent to the closing price of the Icra scrip on the bourses today.

Though the announcement was made after market hours, the Icra share gained around 5.25 per cent to close at Rs 1,594.20 on the BSE as investors seemed to have got a whiff of the deal.

At present, around 54 per cent of Icra’s equity are held by institutions, while the rest are spread among individuals, corporate bodies and NRIs.

In its open offer announcement, Citigroup Global Markets — the managers of the offer — said the acquirer intended to purchase up to 26.50 lakh shares of Icra, thus spending around Rs 530 crore.

However, the offer is subject to a minimum level of acceptance of 21.49 lakh shares, representing 21.5 per cent of the company’s voting share capital.

For the quarter ended December 31, 2013, Icra reported an 11 per cent rise in operating income at Rs 42.53 crore compared with Rs 38.45 crore in the same quarter of the previous fiscal, led by bank loan and structured finance ratings. Small industries also sought credit ratings to access bank loans during the quarter.

The company’s profit after tax increased 16 per cent to Rs 12.17 crore from Rs 10.52 crore a year ago.

Last year, Standard & Poor’s upped its stake in domestic arm Crisil through an open offer for about Rs 1,900 crore.